Opinion Essay Lesson
5th Grade Teaching Point/Goal: ''What will students know and are able to do as a result of this lesson? Students will be able to use pre-writing steps to begin writing an opinion essay on a social issue topic. '''Framing Questions: 'Questions that teacher and students will consider throughout the lesson. *What are the components of opinion essay? *Why do we need to support our opinions with evidence? *How can evaluating an opposing viewpoint helps us craft our opinion on an issue. Link To Standards: ''What competencies from the NYC/NYS Common Core Standards are addressed in this lesson?'' 5. W. 1 Write opinion pieces on topics or texts, supporting a point of view with reasons and information. Connection/Motivation: The students have been doing brief presentations on current events that they have read in the news. One of the topics that a student presented upon was the ban of large-sized sugary drinks in New York City. This presentation garnered a lot of debate and discussion amongst the students. This lesson will be the first in a two-week long unit on writing opinion essays. The teacher will begin the lesson by reading the teaching point to the students. The teacher will then remind students of the recent presentation on the NYC soda ban. The teacher will explain that they will be exploring this topic further today. On the powerpoint, the teacher will display a pro and cons chart to be filled out on the NYC Board of Health’s ban on large sugary drinks. Students will use their prior knowledge to complete this chart together by discussing some of the arguments for and against the ban. At this point, students will be asked to refrain from stating their personal opinions on the topic. Rather they can just list the possible arguments for and against. After the chart is completed, the teacher will explain that they will all be writing an opinion essay on this topic. Today they will learn about steps to organize their essay.Write the first paragraph of your page here. Lesson Development: Model (I try): The teacher will then ask students, “What are the components of an opinion essay?” Students will share what they already have learned about writing opinion essays and the teacher will track these on the Smartboard. If not mentioned, the teacher will remind students that an opinion essay needs a thesis, should be supported by evidence, should have a conclusion, etc. The teacher will explain that to begin writing an opinion essay it is helpful to use some pre-writing steps. The teacher will show on the Smartboard the following five steps; decide what you think, find your support, craft your thesis, write your hook, summarize the issue. The teacher will use a different social issue (whether schools should require school uniforms) as an example. The teacher will demonstrate how he could begin planning his essay on this topic by first filling out each of these five steps. Active Involvement (We try): (10 minutes) The teacher will now ask the students to think about their own views on the NYC soda ban. The teacher will ask questions, such as; “What are some arguments and evidence that would support your opinion?” “Where could you find more evidence?” “How could you hook a reader into opinion essay and make them want to learn more?” Students will do a turn-and-talk and discuss these questions with a partner. After the turn-and-talk, the students will share back some of the things they discussed. The teacher will track these by adding them under the appropriate steps projected on the Smartboard. Independent/partner activity/group activity (You try): (20 minutes) The teacher will explain that they will now work independently to begin planning their opinion essays. The teacher will point out that the final version of their opinion essays won’t be due for another two weeks. Before writing their final version, they will be using these steps to find support for their view, plan a thesis, and develop their paper. The teacher will distribute a handout with a compilation of articles from TIMEHealthland on the NYC soda ban. The students will begin be reading these articles to gain additional information on the topic. They will also have access to laptops to do additional research. During this lesson, the students will be tasked with researching this topic and to begin completing each of the five steps in their writing notebooks. The students will complete their work during follow up writing workshops. The teacher will circulate among the tables to see if the students are beginning to organize their ideas, evidence, etc into these five steps. The teacher will also be available to answer students concerns and questions. For those students who are using the laptops, the teacher will provide guidance over which websites would contain the most useful information. Plan for Differentiated Instruction/Activity: ''What modifications will you use to meet the needs of all students? All of the students in this gifted and talented class are achieving at or above grade level. However, there are still several ways this lesson will be differentiated. During the activity phase, some students will be allowed to work together during the research/information gathering phase. Students will have the option of using laptops if they want. Students can begin writing their ideas in their notebooks or also in google docs (they are learning about google docs in their technology class). '''Share/Closure:' Students will reconvene on the carpet to share some of the information that they’ve researched on the topic as well as things that surprised them. Students will also be able to ask follow-up questions about each of these planning steps. Section heading Write the first section of your page here. Section heading Write the second section of your page here. Category:Literacy